Front-runner Zohran Mamdani broke a sweat – literally – during a knock-down-drag-out final mayoral debate Wednesday as a fired-up Andrew Cuomo repeatedly pressed him to “quit acting” and deliver straight answers.
The normally smooth-talking socialist was repeatedly pinned into a corner by the unlikely tag team of Cuomo, the ex-governor running as an independent, and GOP nominee Curtis Sliwa, who labeled Mamdani’s policy proposals “fantasy.”
Seizing the last opportunity to cut Mamdani down to size — with 13 days to go before the Nov. 4 election — the thirsty rivals wouldn’t let any of the Democratic nominee’s non-answers slide off the LaGuardia Community College stage.
“Don’t be a politician,” Sliwa taunted when Mamdani tried to dodge giving his opinion about important ballot proposals, mousily saying he was “appreciative that those measures will be on the ballot.”
“Oh, what a shocker,” Cuomo sniped, before mocking the front-runner with a talking hands gesture.
A visibly sweaty Mamdani also steered clear of straightforward answers when pressed on:
- Education reform. Mamdani doubled down on his opposition to mayoral control and his support of the state’s class size mandate — but was unable to point to any substantive issues with the dysfunction in the schools system, instead serving up word salad about the importance of education and “the crisis in front of us” without delving into any details of how he would tackle the issue.
- Public safety. Asked for specifics about his Department of Community Safety that would send social workers to mental health calls and domestic violence disputes with the NYPD, he only said such approaches worked elsewhere in the US and “I trust the dispatchers who would be receiving these calls to make the determination as to whether there was any indication of violence.”
- Housing: Mamdani had no answer for how to speed up the process to quickly build new units and help ease the housing crisis, only mustering up that “we need to do this by streamline the processes of private sector construction across the city.”
- Ballot measures. Moving local elections to presidential election years, repeatedly saying “I have not reviewed the proposals” about any of the issues coming up on the very ballot he’ll be on.
The Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em-esque debate hosted by Spectrum NY1 wasn’t a complete wash for Mamdani, as much of it boiled down to whether the 34-year-old Queens assemblyman’s lack of experience was worse than Cuomo’s arguably bad record as a three-term governor.
Cuomo, 67, appeared stronger than his hectoring and defensive performance during the first debate last week.
He came out swinging with boasts about delivering a well-regarded redesign of LaGuardia Airport and the long-awaited Second Avenue subway’s first leg as governor, while colorfully contending he could stand toe-to-toe with a “hyper-aggressive” President Trump if elected — unlike the upstart Mamdani.
“He thinks he’s a kid and he’s going to knock him on his tuches,” Cuomo said about Trump’s assessment of Mamdani, whom the president has dubbed “my little communist.”
Mamdani looked shocked several times as Cuomo attacked him for posing in a smiley picture with anti-gay Ugandan Deputy Prime Minister Rebecca Kadaga, or ripped him as a “good actor” who missed his true calling.
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“He’s a good actor, he missed his calling,” Cuomo said as he launched one of several attacks on Mamdani’s signature “rent freeze” policy platform, pivoting from a question about the record number of homeless schoolkids in the city.
“Freeze the rent sounds great, yeah, it affects about 25% of the number of housing units in the city of New York. It’s not a new idea. Bill de Blasio did it,” Cuomo said.
“I’m going to deep freeze the rent. People think it applies to all of them,” he said later on in the 90 minute slugfest, to applause from supporters in the audience.
“And by the way, it’s all because the mayor doesn’t have the power to do it anyway. The Rent Guidelines Board does, and he doesn’t control the Rent Guidelines board, so nothing is going to happen,” Cuomo railed. “It’s just the old political blather, Mr. Mamdani.”
When Mamdani, a harsh critic of Israel, tried to reassure Jewish New Yorkers he’d represent them, too, if elected, Cuomo sarcastically interjected: “You are the savior of Jewish people?”
But Cuomo found himself dogged by his record during the COVID pandemic and, especially, the sordid scandal that led to him to resign in disgrace in 2021.
He struggled to come up with a coherent answer about the 13 women who accused him of sexual harassment — one of whom, Charlotte Bennett, was in the audience as part of a Mamdani-organized stunt.
Mamdani cast Cuomo as “Donald Trump’s puppet” and argued the longtime pol’s “experience” is precisely what led to New Yorkers’ woes on housing, the MTA and deaths in nursing homes during the pandemic.
“You will hear from Andrew Cuomo about his experience, as if the issue is that we don’t know about it,” Mamdani said, adding, “The issue is that we have all experienced your experience.”
Sliwa also jumped into Cuomo’s Mamdani-bashing, calling his proposals “fantasy.”
But Sliwa — whose tan line from his signature red beret was clearly visible — proved a double-edged dogpile ally for the ex-gov.
“Your resume could fit on a cocktail napkin,” Sliwa told Mamdani at one point, before snapping at Cuomo “(you) had your fill.”
“You fled from being impeached!” he yelled at Cuomo during another heated exchange.
The Guardian Angels founder, who has faced growing calls to drop out to give the second-place-polling Cuomo a fighting chance at thwarting the democratic socialist, couldn’t resist battering the ex-gov and arguably helping Mamdani.
“It was Mamdani’s weakest performance this cycle,” said Andrew Kirtzman, a longtime communications specialist. “Both his opponents were in rare form, and ganged up on him all night. At one point they were literally laughing at him from both sides. Mamdani is an extremely talented debater but he seemed besieged.
“The problem for Cuomo, though, is that he needed both of them to have a bad night. If Sliwa’s numbers don’t fall there is no way Cuomo can win. But Sliwa had a terrific night. He has grown as a candidate this year – it’s impressive.”
Mamdani, perhaps appreciative of Sliwa’s unwilling assist, gave his rival some love when asked how he’d vote if it were a ranked-choice election.
“Myself number one, and Curtis number two,” he said.
“Oh, please don’t be glazing me here, Zohran,” Sliwa said to laughter.
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